Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 1.djvu/171

 DRUM CASTLE 151 SECOND PERIOD The existing keep was probably built about the time of William de Irvine. Drum was previously a royal forest, and one of the hunting-seats of the kings of Scotland. This keep may therefore have been originally a royal residence. It has all the characteristics of the fourteenth- century towers. The plan is quadrilateral, and measures 53 feet long by 39 feet wide externally, and has the four angles of the walls rounded off. The entrance has originally been at the level of the hall, on the first floor, probably where the outer door still is, on the south side of the keep. It is now approached by a flight of stone steps, but the original access would be by a moveable wooden stair. The first floor (Fig. 117), or the original common hall, has been greatly altered, but it has apparently entered by a door (now built up) imme- diately opposite the entrance door to the keep. This floor, now FIG. US. Drum Castle. Plan of Basement. modernised, is covered with a barrel vault. The passage from the entrance leads to a newel stair in the angle of the tower, and also gives